Russia’s reserves surge past $600 billion

Russia has continued amassing foreign currency reserves, with the stockpile rising to $600.8 billion as of April 7, according to a central bank report on Thursday.

The institution said that the volume of international reserves increased by $6.9 billion, or 1.2%, from March 31 due to “a positive market revaluation.”

Roughly half of the holdings were frozen by Western central banks in early March as part of the sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict. In addition to freezing the funds, Western countries banned operations related to their management.

The most recent figure, however, is lower than a year ago, when the country’s reserves hit a historic high of $643.2 billion on February 18.

Despite this, the Russian Finance Ministry said the country would be able to cope with the sanctions thanks to its abundant reserves.

Russia’s forex reserves consist of monetary gold, Special Drawing Rights (SDR) within the IMF, as well as foreign currency and physical gold held within the country.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier proposed the creation of an investment fund from frozen Russian state and private assets, and using the profits for the post-conflict restoration of Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly called the freezing of its assets “theft,” and warned that it goes against international law. According to the Kremlin, the very idea of international reserves has been discredited by the use of the US dollar as a weapon in the sanctions war against Russia.

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